Humble Braggers; A fresh band making its way in the Indie Scene.

I recently was fortunate enough to interview Tom Burtless, Matt Chavanne and Bryan Zells of the Humble Braggers, a fresh indie band with a youthful sound! Here’s what we discussed.

Q. Tell us a little about yourself, where your from, grew up, what H.S./College you attended etc.

Photo: Greg McClure

Tom: Bryan and I are from Orchard Park and Matt is from Hamburg, two suburbs of Buffalo. I’ve known Bryan since I was like 12 or 13, and our lives have always been intertwined in musical projects. This has undoubtedly been the longest project we’ve been in together. In Orchard Park there was a small collective of musicians our age with similar music interests and we’ve all somewhat stayed together/close.

Q. What inspired you to be an artist/entertainer? Early experiences worth sharing?

Matt: Probably being exposed to music at an early age, learning different instruments, and trying to emulate sounds or ideas that caught my ear. I played trumpet in band in school. I learned drums on my own. I don’t really have a specific instance of inspiration, just a gradual realization that writing and playing music is the only way I can stay sane.

Photo: Krit Upra

Q. Talk about a time where you have faced adversity/conflict and have triumphed.

Tom: We’re fortunate enough that we haven’t faced too much adversity or conflict in this band. I think we’ve learned that if you can still go as hard playing your songs in front of 10 people as you can in front of 1,000 you’re (probably? hopefully?) on the right track.

Photo: Krit Upra

Q. What do you believe sets you apart from other artists/entertainers?

Tom: We blend a lot of different influences together to make the music that we do. There are roots of this band in 80’s pop and 2000’s indie rock as much as there are in early emo and folk. I don’t think we shy away from including any sort of influence or style into what we try to do in this project. I like to hope that there’s earnestness in this project that you don’t see in a lot of other bands in our genre.

Q. Do you have other interests or hobbies?

Photo: Krit Upra

Matt: We all have hobbies other than music, pretty basic stuff – reading, food, biking, hiking, etc. Personally, being a musician takes up most of my time at the moment. I think it would be safe to say that music is probably the biggest ‘interest’ in all of our lives right now.

Q. Any projects you have out or currently working on?

Matt: We all are in other projects currently. Bryan is in a folky alternative project called Yali. Tom is in a few projects including a Pixies-esque outfit called HoneyComa, as well as a nostalgic emo cover band called Girl Jeans. I am in a post punk project called Orations. I believe we all have released material from said projects relatively recently.

Q. Where would you like to see yourself in 5 years?

Photo: Krit Upra

Matt: Hopefully still enjoying what we are doing: writing, creating, playing, listening. Either that or on a one way trip to Mars.

Q. What advice can you give to aspiring artists/entertainers?

Matt: The steps are quite simple: be provocative, be organized.

Photo: Zach Anderson

Tom: Heavy emphasis on the latter. A lot of my favorite local bands have fallen apart or drifted away from lack of organization and keeping it together.

Q. How can we follow along in your journey? Social media?

Tom: You can find us on all the basics – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter – all with the handle Humble Braggers (humblebraggers for IG and Twitter). If you want to see me Snapchat my drunk friends we’re also on that as humblebraggers. For our music we’re on every platform – Spotify, iTunes, Napster, Google Play.

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